Autocar product test: What is the best insect remover?
Insect removers are made to effortlessly get rid of bugs – and often tar, road grime, bird poo and tree sap too. Throughout the year, these things can be a pain, but over summer, it can get to the point where it’s difficult to see clearly through your windscreen. As well as not looking very pleasant, insects and bird poo in particular can damage your car’s paint job. You might think they’d be easy to wipe off, but the little nasties can be impressively stubborn to remove.
For this product test, we’re looking at the best insect removers, considering how effective they are at destroying bugs, how easy the products are to use, if they’re versatile (get rid of other things), and assessing their cost effectiveness.
The products or services referenced in this story have been reviewed independently by our experts. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. However, this will never influence our opinion or ratings.
BEST BUY: Liqui Moly Insect Remover
Price: £7.33
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
Liqui Moly suggests "allowing it to take effect according to the degree of contamination", but at the same time, don’t let it dry on your paint job. That’ll be a balance you’ll have to strike. The product can be used on all exterior surfaces – glass, plastic, paint and chrome – and we found a few minutes did the trick. It was very effective at destroying bugs, plus it’s very reasonably priced and good value for money. This is a great product that ticks all the boxes.Autocar says: 5 stars
RECOMMENDED: Sonax Insect Remover
Price: £15.08
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
Usefully, Sonax’s Insect Remover is safe for use on chrome, paint, plastic and glass. Even the most horrible, ‘what on earth did that used to be?’ bugs are easily dealt with. It’s a really tough product that’s a doddle to use. Spray on, leave, wipe off. Thankfully, it didn’t require any serious elbow grease, and everything was swiftly and cleanly dealt with, leaving no residue behind. Excellent.
Autocar says: 5 stars
GTechniq W8 Bug Remover
Price: £8.99
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
GTechniq’s excellent W8 Bug Remover is easy to use and effective. Simply spray onto any offending insects, and leave it to work for three to five minutes. If necessary for the really stuck-on ones, you may need to rinse and repeat. This product worked a treat on our windscreen in particular, getting rid of even the tiniest trace of insects, and leaving no residue behind. For the more stubborn bugs, a small amount of elbow grease was required, but that’s it. You can also use this product safely on wax coatings.
Autocar says: 4.5 stars
CarPlan No.1 Super Bug Spray
Price: £9.99
What’s included: 600ml
Buy from: Amazon
If you want to add a bit of brightness to your bug removing, CarPlan’s No.1 Super Bug spray is the way to go. It’s neon-bright and very thick. To apply, we spritzed it onto all offending items, followed the ‘up to five minutes’ dwell time suggestion, then wiped off. If you’ve got lots of insects to tackle, it can be a bit frustrating as the spray comes out in quite a narrow stream, but on the other hand, if you only have a few, it targets them well. It did a great job cleaning our glass and paintwork, and also made quick work of insects, tree sap and bird poo. Compared with many other products we tested, you get more product for your money (600ml), and it’s well priced in the first place.
Autocar says: 4.5 stars
Meguiar’s Heavy Duty Foaming Bug Remover
Price: £16.99
What’s included: 444ml
Buy from: Amazon
As this product is a foam, it didn’t run off the car when we sprayed it on, which definitely helps deal with an attack of the bugs. It’s very easy to use, didn’t require any scrubbing to remove even the most baked-on insects and easily dealt with road grime and tar. It’s clearly a powerful product, but you can safely use it on paint, chrome, glass and plastics without it causing any discolouration.
Autocar says: 4 stars
AutoGlym Active Insect Remover
Price: £9.95
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
This product takes only 30 seconds of dwell time to work. We were a little sceptical but needn’t have been. It’s a foam and, like Meguiar’s, it stays put on your car’s surface when you spray it on. The incredibly short time was plenty and it worked really well, destroying nearly all bugs and insects. A few particularly well-stuck ones required another go-over. It can be used on all exterior surfaces.
Autocar says: 4 stars
TurtleWax Insect Remover
Price: £7.00
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
TurtleWax’s Insect Remover can be used on glass, plastic or metal. Simply spritz onto any insect remains – or bird poo – on your car, leave to dwell for one minute, then wipe away. The product works very quickly and did a good job. However, we found it left a few annoying smears on our windscreen despite the claim that it gives a streak-free finish. Some more persistent bugs required a second spray too. This is the cheapest product we tested.
Autocar says: 3.5 stars
CarGods Bug & Sap Remover
Price: £9.99
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
CarGods’ Bug & Sap Remover can be used on windscreens, headlight lenses and painted surfaces. It suggests applying liberally, and allowing a couple minutes of dwell time for the product to work. Once you’ve exhausted your patience, remove everything with a cloth or soft detailing brush. To get rid of some very baked-on tree sap, we had to deploy elbow grease, but it was incredibly effective on insects, leaving no trace of their existence.
Autocar says 3.5 stars
Gyeon Q²M Bug & Grime
Price: £9.50
What’s included: 400ml
Buy from: Amazon
For use on all exterior surfaces, including bare aluminium, chrome and ceramic coatings, Gyeon’s Q²M Bug & Grime is a good product to have around. The suggested process is to spray on, allow two minutes of dwell time, then get the pressure washer out to blast everything away, without needing to agitate. We are aware that not everyone will have a pressure washer, though, so tested with and without. With the pressure washer, a few insects (or parts of them) remained, but the majority had completely disappeared. Without the pressure washer, it still did a good job, but some required some extra scrubbing.
Autocar says: 3.5 stars
Dodo Juice Flies Undone
Price: £9.75
What’s included: 500ml
Buy from: Amazon
On paintwork, Dodo Juice’s Flies Undone was highly effective at destroying bugs and bird poo. Apply directly to the affected areas of your car’s bodywork, leave for a few minutes and wipe off. That’s great. However, it’s not recommended for use on glass, including your windscreen, in case of smears. Unfortunately, insects aren’t picky where they choose to meet their fate, so you’re likely to need a product that can tackle glass too. If you do use it on your windscreen, you’ll need a dedicated glass cleaner afterwards, which adds to the number of products required to do the job.
Autocar says: 3.5 stars
Disclaimer: The products or services referenced in this story have been reviewed independently by our experts. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. However, this will never influence our opinion or ratings
Rachael Hogg
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